HOME JOTTINGS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2564, 27 June 1882, Page 3

HOME JOTTINGS.

We have received the following by telegraph from Auckland:—The “Star’s” London correspondent writes, under date May 18th, as follows ; The direct steam prospectus, still under consideration, may almost nuy day blossom Corhh into the publicity of a prospectus. It is understood that the P. and O. Company are principal opponents of the scheme, and that having irons of a similar kind of their own in the fire, they will leave no stone unturned to burke it. We hope, however, that the London Syndicate may be too much for them, more especially as it seems to be oleaier each day that extravagantly filled steamships really do not P <. y . and that what is wanted for the New Zealand i.rade is a series ot plain but comfortable 2Uuo boats, capable of carrying passengers and cargo (frozen meat and fruit particularly) at moderate rates. Many people here think that the passenger traffic between England and Tasmania and New Zealand, and vice versa, will be well righ doubled wheat moderate fares are inaugu-atod. Af present if a family residing (say at Auckland) wish to taken trip to Europe,theundeitakingis a most expensive one, and entails an outlay of many hundred pounds. Whether the party travels by San Francisco and braves Yanketkextortion, or whether they select the Orient route, with it* stoppages at Sydney and Melbourne, and the frequent goings ashore, they will certainly have Io pay a tidy sum for the extras over and above the seventy pounds passage money. How different will things be with a direct line of boats starting from New Zealand wharves. Then paterfamilias need only say, “My dear, Suppose you and I go home this summer for three months, and leave the children in charge of your mother. The return fare will bo £BO, £l6O for both of us, or say with wine and other extras and a run ashore at Capetown, £175. That will leave us £125 to spend at Home, for I have decided that the cost of the trip must not exceed £300." Nowadays married couples seldom dream cf a run Home unless they can afford £7OO or £IOOO for it, but when the whole thing can be done for £BOO or £3OO, it ia hoped that the number of ocean travellers will be twice what it is now. Since I last wrote the world-famed Canard Steamship Company have declared their annual dividend ; and what do yon think it is t Why, 3 per cent.—a miserable 3 per cent., —and yet these liners are invariably most crowded when crossing the Atlantic. Does it not prove unmistakably that luxurious passengers vessels don’t pay P That worthy but infamously mannered person Sir Henry Parkea; has been distinguishing himself in polite society. The other night-the Under-Secretary for the Colonies gave a dinner party in honor of the Premier ot New South Woles, and asked the Dukes of Sutherland and Argyle to meet him, Tne dinner hour was (is is usual in London) eight o’clock, end within a few minutes of that hour all the company had assembled save Sir Henry. The guests waited, and time passed, but the great man never turned up. Indeed it was just a quarter to nine when at last the butler announced him. Probably the host expected some sort of an apology from bis dilatory acquaintance, but if ho did, ho did not get one. The Premier swaggered in as cool as a cucumber, and not even the obvious frigidity of the Duke of Argyle or the remarks sntto voce of His Grace of Sutherland, that “ The man was a lamentable s*ob, ” had the smallest effect on his assurance.

That prince of philanthropists, Sir J. Vogel, is ever on the look out for some means to benefit the Australian colonies, and, of course in a very secondary degree, his own pockets. The newest “special” with which he has associated his distinguished name is the Australasian Electric Light, Power aud Storage Company, capital £225,000, in shares of £5 each. This company, I learnt from the prospectus, has been formed to carry on in the various colonies of Australasia the business of supplying, and of enabling its licensees to supply electricity for the purpose of electric lighting. The motive power is chemical decomposition, and there are other applications for wbioh it is suitable. The company has acquired the exclusive right to the Brush and Lane Box system in these colonies, but it is not bound to use any particular invention. It has acquired the Brush and Lane Pox system, because of its proved practical value, and it will endeavor to secure the beet system of electric storage. Though at "first sight the scheme seems rather a fly away one, it is by no means unlikely to succeed. I went the other day to the Crystal Palace to visit the electric exhibition, and what I saw there quite convinced mo that the doom of gas is sealed for domestic purposes. The incandescent lamps of La-Je, Fox, Swan, and others are simply peerless, the i ffeot being precisely the same as a soft and brilliant candle without heat, danger or smell. What will happen is, this manufacture for the generation and storage of electricity will bo started in each town in the colony, ana wire, will bo laid into the subscribers’ houses in the same way as gas pipes are now. All that a subscriber will have t» do when he wants to

light his lamp is to turn on a switch in the earns way as ha now turns on the gas, the only difference being that no match or light of any kind will be required, the switch connecting or disconnecting the electric current, and so lighting or turning eff the lamps. In addition to every lamp having a separate switch, there will be the master’s switch in the butler’s pantry, which he will only have to turn on apjl off to lighten or darken, simultaneously, every electric lamp in the house. The expense is small. The “ Swan ” lamp gives as much light as ten candles, costa ss, and will burn 2000 hours; or, presuming it to bo used five hours per diem, over twelve months When one lamp is burnt out, you simply disconnect it from the wire switch by your fingers, and fasten on a now one. The electricity bill will be paid monthly, like the gas bill, the only difference being that it will be much less in amount. I was quite amtzad at the absurd simplicity of the whole business. I don’t knew why, but I had got to think that ligh ing by electricity meant a glaring sort of light, very white, very brilliant, and very fliokery, entailing no end of bother and awful expense. Instead of all this it is the simplest affair, indeed now adays every new house in Lcndoc is fitted with electric lights and bells as a matter of course, for, even when there is no electricity store handy, the necessary batteries can be set up tor about £3 and set going. Any servant can keep them in order without difficulty. The projected trip of the “ Gentlemen ” to the colonies in the autumn will, it is feared, fall through, owing to the illness of the Hon, Ivo Bligh, who was to captain the team. Bir Hy. Parkos ie staying with Mr Hodgson, O.M.G, at Clifton House, close to Stratford-on-Avon. His host, who was high sheriff last year, is a successful Queensland sheep farmer, having with a small capital accumulated a largo fortune by this means.